How to Deep-Clean Your Home (and Keep It Clean)

June 30, 2020

When you’re spending an increased amount of time indoors, keeping your home clean can keep you feeling organized and purposeful. During times of increased health risks, you’ll have to be a little more diligent in maintaining cleanliness than you would on a day-to-day basis in normal times. When there are more pathogens in the air and a need to clean not only for the safety of yourself, but of your family, check out these tips and tricks for deep-cleaning your home — and keeping it clean!

Start With the Surfaces

Before you start “wet cleaning” with sprays and antibacterial solutions, make sure that you’re done a surface-level clean of your home. This doesn’t necessarily just mean dusting your shelves and wiping your countertops: Go through every room of your home and pick up any items off the floor or other surfaces that are not in their designated places. By doing this step before you start scrubbing and getting into any hard-to-reach areas, you’re saving yourself from having to pick up any residual items manually once you’re vacuuming or power washing.

Practice Effective and Specialized Sanitation

Make sure that in your day-to-day home cleanliness maintenance, you’re taking all of the necessary steps to keep areas germ-free. Here are some of the most important items your at-home cleaning kit should include specialized cleaning products for:

Floors. The dirt we track in on the ground areas will be different from what accumulates on high-touch areas such as tables and countertops. You can use stronger solutions to deep-clean these areas because you won’t be in contact with them directly when it comes to eating or drinking.
Wet areas. For bathrooms, kitchen sinks, bathtubs and showers, you can use cleaning products that contain chlorine. The bacteria that accumulate in wet areas from condensation can be trickier to remove than soap scum, so make sure you use cleaning products that you can leave on for an hour or so to soak off those germs.
Kitchen. Your kitchen is probably getting a lot more action than usual if you’ve found yourself quarantining at home with your family. Keep your kitchen as germ-free as possible by running the dishwasher often, and not letting dirty dishes or food scraps pile up in your sink or the garbage. Your kitchen surfaces will require a bit more maintenance than usual, so stock up on antibacterial spray; just make sure that it’s specialized and safe for kitchen use in case any residue gets on a dish or a cooking utensil.

Set Up a Cleaning Schedule

The key to maintaining a clean home after a deep clean is delegating some time throughout your week to keep things in order. Decide on one day a week that you’ll use to deep-clean a specific area of your home – then assign smaller tasks once a day to family members (like taking out the trash or doing a load of laundry) to keep such tasks — and a mess! — from accumulating. Also, don’t forget to put out a few containers of sanitizing wipes around the home for easy access in the case of a last-minute cleanup.

Stay Clean on the Inside, Too

The best supplement to a healthy home is a healthy body and mind. It can be hard to get all of your vitamins and nutrients when quarantining at home, so adding additional steps to your wellness routine can go a long way toward supporting your immunity and keeping your body functioning at its best. Taking Om’s organic, functional whole-food mushrooms can help support your immune system by making sure your body is getting enough beta glucans, prebiotics, digestive enzymes, fiber and antioxidants to keep you healthy, energized and ready to take on any curveballs.

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